Add support for Asahi Linux (ARM, Apple hardware)

mrakw
Asahi Linux is a new project that allows you to install linux on Apple hardware that use their new chips with an ARM architecture. Unfortunately, at this point, I wasn't able to find a Zotero package that would install on this machine.

Given that there will soon be an official release of Ashahi Linux, the demand for ARM linux builds will only increase. Would it be possible to make an official release for this architecture?
  • dstillman
    There's unlikely to be an ARM Linux build of Zotero until there's an official ARM Linux build of Firefox, on which Zotero is based. I'm not sure if they have any plans for that. There are distro-specific ARM Firefox packages, but we only produce one Linux tarball that needs to work across as many distros as possible.
  • mrakw
    Could you let me know what you consider to be the official version of Firefox, and where to download it? I'll be happy to complain elsewhere!
  • adamsmith
    https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release
  • dstillman
    But don't actually complain to Mozilla. Zotero is not their problem, and they've made clear to others who have asked that an ARM64 Linux tarball is not a priority at this time, since distros are already creating suitable ARM64 packages.

    There are some possibilities we can look into here, but no ETA.
  • filipesm
    Hello! I'm also interested in this so I can dump Apple software :)

    I also understand the difficulties of it, so my question is: what can we do in the meantime? What would be the recommendation of the team? Is it "Either you can use Zotero or Linux on Mac" atm? Or is there a creative solution you can think of?

    Thanks!
  • fredrmb
    Looks like we're one step closer to ARM64 Linux tarballs of Firefox. Since April 19, this has been available for Firefox Nightly: https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2024/04/19/firefox-nightly-now-available-for-linux-on-arm64/.

    Looking forward to this also being available for normal releases of Firefox, if that's the blocker for Zotero for ARM64 Linux (e.g. Asahi Linux).

    I'm very interested in learning about any workarounds in the meantime.
  • dstillman
    Yes, once there are ARM64 Linux tarballs for Firefox ESR, we'll be able to offer this.
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